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In a Mirror, Darkly Part 1
In the mirror universe In the USS Defiant NCC-1764 '' |image= |series= |production=094 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Mike Sussman |director= James L. Conway |imdbref=tt0572219 |guests=Vaughn Armstrong as Captain Maximilian Forrest, Franc Ross as Grizzled Man and Caroline Bielskis as Montana Earth Woman |previous_production=Bound |next_production=In a Mirror, Darkly Part 2 |episode=ENT S04E18 |airdate=22 April 2005 |previous_release=Bound |next_release=In a Mirror, Darkly Part 2 |story_date(s)=13 January 2155 (stardate 0141.7) / 5 April 2063 |previous_story=Bound |next_story=In a Mirror, Darkly Part 2 }} Plot In 2063, a Vulcan ship lands on Earth, making first contact with humans . Instead of peacefully greeting them, Zefram Cochrane shoots the lead Vulca,n and the humans storm and loot the ship. In 2155, Doctor Phlox and Major Reed demonstrate a new torture device to Captain Forrest and Commander Archer on the ISS Enterprise. Archer suggests to Forrest they travel into Tholian space, as he has heard rumors of technology they might wish to steal. The two argue, and Forrest returns to his quarters where he is comforted by Lieutenant Sato. When he leaves, he is ambushed by Archer and several MACOs (a military team) and sent to the brig. Archer travels to the bridge and announces that he has taken command. After torturing a Tholian pilot for coordinates, he orders a change of course to the shipyard, and tells Commander T'Pol, whom he promotes to first officer, to install a Suliban cloaking device with Commander Tucker. Archer also appoints Sergeant Mayweather as his personal guard, and Sato proposes that she keep her job as Captain's woman. Archer has Sato send a message to Starfleet about their mission to raid the Tholian technology. Tucker is injured when the cloaking device is sabotaged. Archer questions Forrest, who denies all knowledge, and Reed tortures Tucker expecting him to be the saboteur. T'Pol leads a team to free Forrest and reclaim the ship, but Archer encrypts navigation control to prevent a course change. Forrest tortures Archer, but orders his release after he receives word that Starfleet agrees with Archer's plans. Archer shows images of an alternate universe vessel from the future named USS Defiant ), that has technology and power that is a century more advanced than ISS Enterprise. On arriving at the shipyard, Archer, T'Pol, and Tucker transport across, and Tucker begins powering up the vessel. Tholian vessels then attack, creating an energy web around Enterprise. Forrest orders the crew to abandon ship but remains behind as the ship is destroyed. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0572219 Errors and Exlanations Plot holes # When T'Pol and her Vulcan aides break in to the brig to free Captain Forrest, they throw a "flashbang" grenade into the room to disable the guards. Forrest is protected from the bang by the holding cell, but should still have been affected by the flash. Maybe he sensed what was about to happen, and quickly positioned himself to protect his eyes. Factual errors # After Zeframe Cochrane shoots a Vulcan, a civilian pulls out what appears to be an MP5K with no magazine, and then shoots at another Vulcan. Without a magazine, however, this should be impossible. The weapon presumably has a cartridge pre loaded in the breech. Plot holes # Captain Forrest's noble act of self-sacrifice is at odds with the amoral, selfish behavior which pervades Imperial culture. Better that than being captured by the Tholians, or tried and executed by the Empire for rejecting Archer’s plan to grab technology that could be used to defeat the enemy. Nit Central # Duke of Earl Grey on Friday, April 22, 2005 - 7:28 pm: While interrogating the Tholian, to get cooperation Archer says "Raise the temperature 50 degrees." When that's not good enough, and the Tholian still won't talk, Archer says to lower the temperature "another 50 degrees." That would of course bring the temperature back to what it originally was. But hey, it worked. Rene on Friday, April 22, 2005 - 7:32 pm:'' Actually Archer doesn't say anything the first time. Phlox says "Decreasing temperature 50 degrees." When it doesn't work, Archer says to "take it down another 50".' # ''The Undesirable Element on Friday, April 22, 2005 - 7:37 pm: Apparently the Tholian web in this universe is vastly superior to the one from the Original Series in our universe. Chris Booton (Cbooton) on Friday, April 22, 2005 - 7:48 pm: It reminded me of the one from Klingon Academy, where when in it, the Tholians can hurt you but you can't hurt them.Anonymous on Friday, April 22, 2005 - 11:40 pm: They also had a whole heck of a lot more ships making it in this episode, whereas only two in the TOS episode. More ships making it = vastly superior. # Corey Hines on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 11:38 am: The Defiant was being held in the Ventax system. Isn't that the place where Ardra tried to take over, on Ventax II? '''Captain Dunsel on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 12:24 pm: Yes, Ardra attempted to blackmail the inhabitants of Ventax II. LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - 6:11 pm: I thought I heard that too, but in reviewing it, it actually, turned out to be the Vintaak System. # Hans Thielman on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 2:33 pm: What is powering the red alert klaxon on the Defiant bridge? Rene on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 2:36 pm: I seem to remember the Enterprise-D still having power for the Red Alert klaxon even when all systems are offline. SeniramUK (talk) 14:00, December 21, 2019 (UTC): It would make sense for starships to have an emergency backup power supply, such as batteries. # dotter31 on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 5:43 pm: I'm assuming that once the alt-humans stormed the Vulcan ship, they dissected it of its technology and used it to take over that part of the galaxy. What did the Vulcans think had happened to their survey ship when they did not report in? And how quickly did the humans make use of the technology? It must have been fast for the humans to enslave the Vulcans. The Vulcans probably assumed it had been damaged or destroyed in an accident. # Influx on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 12:35 am:''My guess -- alt-Trip was affected by the same thing that Captain Pike was? 'ScottN on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 10:12 am: Yep, he said he'd been affected by Delta radiation. Adam Bomb on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 10:27 am: Alt-Trip said that he's taken on enough Delta rays to make sure his grandchildren glow, or something of the sort. So, how come he's not an invalid, like Capt. Pike was? SeniramUK (talk) 14:00, December 21, 2019 (UTC): Maybe he absorbed lower levels over a prolonged period of time, instead of a massive amount all in one go, as Captain Pike did.' # ''Stone Cold Steven Of None on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 7:41 am: One thing, though: The Defiant's technology is over a century in advance of the NX class's; so how are the crew able to get it in gear so quickly? ScottN on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - 11:08 am: The Defiant had the Federation's prototype IFOS! :) # Anonymous on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 2:10 am: Good ep but bit of a nit how is it the enterprise was able to fire while cloaked, it wasn't until star trek VI that Klingons where able to develop this technology Rene on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 5:15 am: Nope. Not a nit. Mirror Universe. # Kazeite on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 3:01 pm:''When NX-01 is under Tholian attack, Forrest orders engineering to take cloak off-line. Amazingly, although cloak controls "are not reponding", with all the power failing on many decks and warp core breach in progress, several seconds later we can see that the cloak is still up. That's some very resistant technology... :) 'SeniramUK (talk) 14:00, December 21, 2019 (UTC) The cloaking device could be stuck in operational mode, and drawing power from other systems, hence the power failures on other decks.' # ''Agrajag on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 7:02 pm: Why, exactly, is Cochrane's gun on Enterprise? Shouldn't it be in a museum or the Emperor's palace? Why should it be on a starship and in the possession of a captain? ScottN on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 8:14 pm: I'm assuming that Cochrane and Archer's father were friends in the Mirror Universe as well, and Alt-Cochrane gave it to Alt-Archer, who passed it on to his son.LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - 6:11 pm: Because he won it/bought it/had it given to him. Why not? Both Kirk and Picard collected antiques, didn’t they? Why not Archer. Since Archer’s father worked with Cochrane, the same may be true in the M.U., and it was gift, perhaps from Cochrane to Henry Archer, and then to Jonathan, or even directly from Cocrhane to Jonathan.Rene on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 8:38 pm: Don't forget. That was Captain Forrest's ready room.LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - 6:11 pm: Perhaps Archer began to decorate it immediately after seizing Forrest’s post, even if with that one rack.' # Not really a nit, just an observation- the Mirror Vulcans didn't seem like the invasion force Archer described. Not a big deal, since A) they could've been a subtle infiiltrate and conquer force, or (more likely) B), history was rewritten by the winners. 'SeniramUK (talk) 14:00, December 21, 2019 (UTC) Or C) The humans mistook the Vulcans as an advanced recon party, which would explain their haste in storming aboard!' # It struck me as odd that the Tholians would hire outside labourers, but I'm not sure why. I guess I had the impression from The Tholian Web that they were secretive and maybe a little xenophobic. 'Rene on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 7:42 pm: Um...do I need to say this? MIRROR UNIVERSE! Unless you also consider it a nit that humans are evil in that universe as well. SeniramUK (talk) 14:00, December 21, 2019 (UTC): Besides, they needed someone else to do all the dirty work!' #''LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - 6:11 pm: Just what is the likelihood of a bunch of ragtag Montanans living out in the woods, after what was likely the M.U.’s own WWIII, being able to take the T’Plana Hath successfully? Even if they killed the first Vulcan, weren’t there security measures in place inside the ship to prevent what happened from happening? Just how incompetent were the Vulcans to allow this to happen? It also stands to reason to question why the Vulcans ever disembarked, possibly unarmed, in front of a crowd of armed humans to begin with. Did they not have sensors to detect the humans’ weapons? The Vulcans weren't expecting any hostile behaviour from the humans. # After we see that warp ship firing on the surface of the planet in the opening title sequence, we see a surface shot of buildings being fired at and destroyed. That shot is from the teaser of Dragon's Teeth (VOY), which occurred over 200 years later, and on the other side of the galaxy! scotia47 on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 4:24 pm: Actually, that shot took place some 900 years before the events in that Voyager episode, which would make it about 700 years before the NX-01 era. # I’m glad that we finally get to see an entire Tholian, but then this raises a question—why didn’t Commander Loskene have arms, or even shoulders, when we saw it on the Enterprise bridge’s main viewer in The Tholian Web (TOS)? Josh M on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:16 pm: The shot we get of him in that episode is an extreme closeup of his head. His arms and shoulders are out of the camera's line of sight. # Kazeite on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - 8:18 am: Despite the fact that Forrest repeatedly orders to "Lay in a course out of here", "Get us out of here", and "transfer all power to engines", NX-01 seems content with just drifting in one place. The controls for ship movement could be off-line at this point. # Allright, are those escape pods totally without controls or something? Because, you know, one of them flies straight through the Web beam without any attempt to alter its course whatsoever. There wasn’t enough time for such a correction! Notes Category:Episodes Category:Enterprise